The present invention comprises a new Poinsettia plant, botanically known as Euphorbia pulcherrima, and hereinafter referred to by the variety name ‘SYEP22866’.
‘SYEP22866’ is a product of a planned breeding program. The new cultivar ‘SYEP22866’ has intense red bracts, medium sized inflorescences with relatively many bracts and many cyathia, dark green foliage, and compact, v-shaped habit with relatively strong, upright directed stems.
‘SYEP22866’ originated from a hybridization made in the summer of 2003 in a controlled breeding program in Hillscheid, Germany. The female parent was the proprietary plant ‘10049’, not patented, having deep red flower color, dark green foliage, about medium sized habit, and early flowering.
The male parent of ‘SYEP22866’ was the proprietary plant designated No. ‘298’, not patented, with bright red bracts, dark green foliage, leaves with strong lobes, and upright plant habit with strong branches.
The resulting seeds were sown in February through March 2004 and ‘SYEP22866’ was selected as one flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross in November/December 2004 in a greenhouse in Hillscheid, Germany.
The first act of asexual reproduction of ‘SYEP22866’ had been accomplished when shoot tip cuttings were used from the initial selection in late July 2004, rooted and cultivated for the above mentioned small trial.
More cuttings were used from the selected plant from April through May 2005 and grafted onto rootstocks of the variety ‘Maren’, in order to improve the branching ability. Shoot tip cuttings from successfully grafted stems were used in the summer of summer of 2007. They were rooted and cultivated as branched plants for a small trial in the fall and winter of 2007.
Horticultural examination of plants grown from cuttings of the plant initiated in the summer of 2007 in Hillscheid, Germany, and continuing thereafter on a larger scale, has demonstrated that the combination of characteristics as herein disclosed for ‘SYEP22866’ are firmly fixed and are retained through successive generations of asexual reproduction.
A Plant Breeder's Right for this cultivar has been applied for in Switzerland. A Plant Breeder's Right has also been applied for in Canada on Mar. 8, 2010 (No. 10-6883). ‘SYEP22866’ has not been made publicly available more than one year prior to the filing of this application.
‘SYEP22866’ has not been observed under all possible environmental conditions. The phenotype may vary significantly with variations in environment such as temperature, light intensity and day length.